Getting to the Space Adventure building didn’t take long, though between the fighting and having to take the long way around, the others were going to be far ahead of me. Sweet would not simply wait at the entrance, the inside would be safer, out of sight of anything hunting us. I just had to get in, pick up their trail, and regroup.

I just needed to get in…

Find a door…

There were steel shutters blocking the entrance, the sides, and the back. “The fuck!” I spat under my breath. This was going to be a problem, bigger once the pirates catch wind to where I am.

Even with the two vertabucks in the air, and a hotel on fire, the park was still quiet. If I tried to open the shutters the noise alone would reveal my position, and with so much around here was still working, I’d bet a hoof that the alarm was still active.

Activating my telepathy talisman, I hoped to contact Sweet. ‘Sweet are you there! The building is locked off.’ I waited for a moment, but got no response. “Shit!” I spat a little louder then I should.

Looking for another way in, the windows the building had were small, and too high for me to get to. There was a ladder to the roof, but it had long since rusted away and fallen apart. There were no sewer entrances nearby so I’d have to travel out into the park find a way underground.

Across from the Space Adventure building was what looked like the parks shopping mall. The front was bare, scavs having taken anything not bolted down. A bit daring for scavs to come out this far, but not unheard of. If the worse came, it would make a good hiding place until Sweet came out, or Rototom found me.

‘Sweet answer me!’ I attempted to contact her one more time.

Static bounced around my head. ‘Vibe!’ It was Rototom. ‘What’s going on, what happened?’

Looking around, my sister dropped her invisibility on my left. She looked good and well thrashed. Her back left hoof was missing, wires dangling from what was left of the leg, forcing her to hop as she trotted. The specter visor she wore had a fat crack in it, and her cloak was now torn up, and had a few holes in it.

Rototom poked me, balancing on two hooves. “What the fuck happened to you?” I was taken aback by her question for a moment, but remembered that I was covered in my own blood, and had dents and holes in my barding.

I waited for her to put her hoof down before opening my mouth. “Had a two on one fight, I kept putting bullets into them, but they just kept on coming. And you?”

She sighed. “You remember when I’d spin you around as a foal, so fast that you’d lifted off the ground.” I nodded. “Ya, that happened to me, but I was holding onto a minigun, as it was firing.” Rototom trotted hopped over to the Space Adventure building. “The stunt cost me the leg, and ended with me doing a face plant into the kitchen.” She tapped her visor. “These things absorb shock real well, so I should just count myself as lucky that I didn’t break my neck.”

I trotted up to her, and offered her my shoulder to help her balance herself. “So how’d you get away?”

She chuckled. “I set the kitchen on fire. I had gotten a few shots in, my Zeus punching right through the fuckers leg. Eye for an eye. So the pony was limping after me, which gave me time to turn on all the gas in the kitchen. After playing a little cat and mouse, I jumped down the shoot, tossing a grenade behind me. After that, I trotted the rest of the way here.” I gave my sister a hug, I was still pissed at her, and wanted to knock her around myself, but I was glad she was okay.

I looked back at the Space Adventure building. “And now you’re trapped out here with me.”

Rototom’s head scanned the building. Shifting her weight onto me, she lifted a hoof and tapped the metal shutters. “You think this place still has its alarms working?”

“I do.”

She put her hoof back down, taking some of her weight off of me. “Right, lend me some magic, and I’ll get us in.”

“How?” I asked, tilting my head.

“Just do it!” She responded with more authority in her voice.

Sighing, I gathered magic into myself. “You do remember that you drove me out of Orthrus, right?” Minerva clicked as the ambient magical radiation increased around us, a side effect of drawing magic into ourselves when in irradiated areas. It wasn’t anything our bodies couldn’t handle, but it could easily make a bad situation deadly.

“Here, when we get back, I’ll have your record cleared, and get you a nice safe job in Orthrus. Dad has been needing an assistant lately.” That was not going to fix things, and she knew it. I didn’t know what she was thinking at the time, but right now I just wanted to drop her, kick her, and scream my lungs out at her. But I knew that would not fix things either, and I’d only feel worse afterwards.

My entire body felt warm as the magic started to vent off me and shimmer. Rototom was also shimmering, her body now filled with magical energy. “Ready to transfer the magic to you. Oh, and when we're out of, this, we're going to have a long talk.”

Rototom chuckled. “I missed our long talks.” The magic flowed from me to her, feeling a bit like my blood draining, leaving me feeling a little cold.

Suddenly I was engulfed in a bright light, and then darkness. “What just happened?”

“Were inside.” My sister said, and with a click, the light on her pipbuck Athena lighted up the area around us.

I turned on Minerva’s light too, giving us a little more range of sight.

*Pop*

“Fuck!” my sister yelped as the remains of her back left leg smoked.

I trotted over to it, placing a hoof on the mechanical part of her flank. The hatch on the leg opened up with no effort at all, and I could see that the talisman inside had cracked. “Let me guess, your teleportation talisman?”

She nodded.

I threw out the broken talisman, and removed the broken leg. At this point it was just junk that was going to slow her down. “How much did that leg cost?”

“Me, nothing, Orthrus will flip the bill for it. But I may need to pull a few favors for a new one.” I cringed a little, full cybernetic legs cost a ton of bits.

Turning around, I offered my shoulder to Rototom again. “Right. Well let’s go looking for the others. The sooner we're out of here the better, I got a bad feeling about this place.”

Rototom nodded. “Agreed.”

The place was spotless, still with the rust and rot from age, but the place was as clean as the two tailed mare was. I think the walls even had a fresh coat of paint on it, covering a large crack. I was half expecting to see a ghoul mopping the floor like the old world had never died, the other half was expecting a robot.

“So strange.” My sister said outloud, sending a chill up my spine.

“Ya.” I responded. “You’d expect this place to be worse off than the metro, like the rest of the surface.”

“E’yep” She shifted her weight, pushing off of me to walk on her own. She was still doing the trot hop, but with less strain than before. “I understand the princess suite. A place like that must have had been reinforced.” She shook her head. “A place like this is not.”

We continued down the hall, and deeper into the building. Looking at a few signs pointing in the direction we were going, it looked like this place held a ride in it. Images of foals sitting in two pony seats with safety warnings were clearly visible. There were a few faded pictures as well, mostly ponies with a foal on the ride. There were three pictures that were still in good condition, and above all the others. Each one had two ministry mares in them.

The first picture had a much excited looking Pinkie Pie, and not as excited, but still having fun. Rainbow Dash. The mares of the Ministry of Moral, and the Ministry of Awesome. Everypony knew about the MoM and how it went from keeping everypony happy, to spying on everypony. Orthrus found feral ghouls of the MoM employees here in the park a hundred years back. On the other hoof, nopony knew much about the Ministry of Awesome. The leading theory was that it was a black ops group, and whatever they were up to, only Luna knew. Orthrus did find an MoA base a hundred years back, but all documents had been destroyed when the war ended.

The second picture had a bored looking Rarity and a sleeping Applejack. The mares of the Ministry of Image, and the Ministry of Wartime Technology. The MI was the propaganda branch, what’s left of the posters they printed out by the thousands were considered collector’s items now. Anypony associated with them had died when the war ended, or simply blended into the crowd, never speaking of their employment. The MWT did survive the end of the war, and their members were absorbed into Orthrus a hundred and twenty years ago. A few ponies still follow the steel ranger tradition, but it’s more out of tradition than anything else.

The third picture had a cowering Fluttershy, and Twilight Sparkle reading a book. The mares of the Ministry of Peace, and the Ministry of Arcane Science. For the MoP’s credit, they did their best as healers when everypony fled into the metro, and many of them died in the chaos. When Stable-Tec stepped up to help, the MoP were the first join with them, and get things under control. The MAS on the other hoof never saw the aftermath of the war. Their base of operation was a crater, of which the official statement was that their own megaspell went off there when the war ended. It's what probably turned the air bad, or at least that’s the leading theory.

“Done Vibey?” Pulling my eyes away from the pictures, Rototom was sitting at the end of the hall waiting for me.

“Yes, yes, I’m coming,” I snidely remarked, and trotted over to her.

We were at where the line for the ride would start, with a worn out velvet rope blocking our path. Rototom unhooked the rope and let me go first. It was a short walk to the ride, the hall filled with crude drawings of foals in space suit, obviously not postwar.

As we got closer, I could hear the sound of some pony crying, faint at first, but it grew more distinct. We reached where the ride was, and could hear the crying clearly. “Hello, who’s there?” I asked out loud.

Lifting my pipleg to get more light, I saw the distinctive blue mane and pink face of Harp behind the ride. Her eyes were red, and she shaking a little. “Vi…Vibraphone…” She slowly walked out from behind the ride, and trotted over to me. “Th…thank Celestia” Bringing her face into my chest, she cried like a little lost foal.

All I could do was put a hoof around her and pat her head. “It’s okay, we're here now.” We stayed like this for a long moment, waiting for her to calm down.

“Can you tell me what happened?” I asked.

She sniffled and pulled herself away from me. “Sorry, and here I call myself an adult, sorry” Harp took a deep breath, calming herself down. “Yes, you see the others went to scout ahead, looking for the lower level Rototom mentioned. When they walked into the ride’s area all the shutters closed, separating me and them.”

Rototom hopped over to where the ride would move to, and it was closed off by a large shutter.

Harp pulled her face back into my chest. “I don’t like being alone in the dark, I just sat down. And I kept hearing things all around me, just moving around.” I could feel her start to shake again, so I stroked her mane to help her calm down. “The others said they were going to look for a way around, but they never came back.”

I didn’t like this, not at all. “See anything Sis?” I shouted.

Rototom sat where she was for a moment, rubbing her chin. After the moment was done she turned her head slowly to me. “I got an idea!” She hopped off the rides tracks, and over to a nearby podium. “Get on the ride you two.”

With no plan of my own, I simply did what my sister told me, taking Harp with me. “What are you going to do?” I asked, hoping she had a good answer. I was doubtful.

“Simple, we’re going to ride the ride.” She smiled, hitting something on the podium. “No, not that, how about this!” The lights turned on, hurting my eyes. “Close but not right.” She hit another thing on the podium and music started to play. “Okay, this it is.” She lifted up a leg, and brought her hoof down in a dramatic fashion.

The shutters rolled up, and the ride began to move. Rototom ran past the podium, and jumped over a safety rail. Seating herself in the ride, we had Harp nestled between us. The princess was still holding onto me tightly, but having the lights on seemed to help her calm down.

“Welcome space cadet, are you ready for adventure?” The voice of a mare came out from behind us. As it turned out, what we were sitting in was fitted with a stereo. Taking a quick look behind me, a door closed us off from where we started.

The ride abruptly stopped and the room we were in lit up with lights everywhere. On our left was what looked like a wonderbolts poster, but there were no pegasi, there were rockets in flight. A single pony holding a space helmet was saluting in front of the rockets. It looked all patriotic. On our right was a large image of a space station, with the letters E.S.F.

“E.S.F. what’s that?” I asked.

“Welcome to the Equestrian Space Federation, Cadet!” The disembodied voice of a mare said, answering my question.

“Oh.” Was the only thing I had to say. Rototom chuckled. I felt a little embarrassed that an over two hundred year old recording had answered my question.

“Now before we get to the adventure, a few rules. First is to stay seated and keep all your hooves in at all times. We don’t want you getting captured by the aliens from Planet Z. How are you to help Andromeda if the nasty aliens capture you. Second, be mindful of your other cadets and keep your space clean. A cleanly cadet is a strong cadet. And last but not least, if you see any stripy aliens about, report them! A cadet’s job is to stay vigilant, and protect the federation from those who wish to see it destroyed!”

The door in front of us opened up, and the ride began to move slowly.

“What was that last part all about?” Harp asked looking confused.

“Propaganda.” Rototom answered plainly. “Prepare for lots of anti-zebra shit from here on out.”

“Oh, I see” Harp said meekly. She lifted a leg, and pushed the boot back with a hoof”, revealing a gray stripe on pink coat. She quickly pulled the boot back up, and took a deep breath.

“Must be difficult.” I said to the younger mare. She just nodded, not saying anything.

Pass the door was a long corridor packed with imagery of ponies going into space, along with what sounded like inspirational music. The first image looked more like a photo than a drawing. The pony was clad in a silver suit, and behind the pony was the flag of equestria, and a big blue ball on a black backdrop. Text under the large imaged stated “Astromare Marigold, first pony on the moon” The rest of the images were more artwork of ponies in space, building a space station and space ships. Most of them had faded due to age, so it was not all that impressive.

“You know Harp.” Rototom spoke up. “Me and Vibey here have Zebra heritage.” Harp perked up a little, looking at my sister. “If I remember right, they were farmers in equestria. Before the war started zebras were uncommon, but they were around.”

“How did they end up on Marewaii?” Harp asked, looking more interested.

Rototom chuckled. “Love!”

“Love?” the princess responded.

“E’yep.” Rototom answered. “How the family story goes, our great-great-great-great grandfather fell in love with a member of the royal guard. And she fell in love with him.”

Now she really had Harps attention. I’d heard the story before, so I concentrated on the ride.

The room we entered was made to look like we were in space, and it was done very well. To our right was a mannequin of a pony mare in a fancy space suit. I made an educated guess that it was Captain Andromeda.

“Good day to you cadets, I’m Captain Andromeda, and I’ve been looking for brave ponies to aid me on an adventure.” The elegant sound of a mare came from the direction of the mannequin, confirming my guess. “We’re heading to the research station Love and Tolerance off in sector ten. I heard that there’s going to be a star shower there, something I’d love to see!” Music began to play, but it was off tune, and soon fizzled out. "To tell you the truth, I've gotten reports of suspicious activity out there, and I mean to investigate it. Sector ten happens to be at the edge of federation space, so we have to be careful out there."

The lights went out and the ride began to shake as the sound of rockets filled the room. The ride began to ascend a slope, to our left the image of a rocket appeared moving alongside us, inside was Andromeda waving. All around us were the images of stars, making it look like we were traveling through the night sky.

My sister and Harp had taken a look at the scenery, but quickly returned to Rototom telling our family’s history. “Our family was the first to have cybernetics too. Underbrush, our great, great, great, grandmother, from before the war ended, had lost both of her back legs, so the tec’s back then just made her new ones. The legs are actually in the Orthrus museum if you ever want to take a look.” Harp nodded her head excitedly.

We reached the top of the incline, and my jaw dropped. Before all the stars just looked like little light tricks, nothing all that new. Here it looked like we were in a sea of stars that reached out forever. All around us were stars, I even looked over the side to see that even the floor looked like it was gone. If I didn’t know better I’d think we had just entered a vast void.

“Seems bigger on the inside right.” Rototom spoke up, catching my attention. “I’ve seen this before, it’s a mirror trick and some magic. The blue box in the orphic kingdom is better known, it’s still just a box, but inside it looks like you’re in a big room. There was a haunted house that did something like this on Nightmare Night, it freaked the fuck out of me when I walked into what looked like an endless desert.”

“If it’s mirrors, then shouldn’t we see our reflection?” Harp asked.

Rototom nodded. “That’s where the magic comes in. The mirrors are enchanted to hide the viewer’s reflection and anything that break the illusion. From what I’m told it’s a bit tricky to do, and bigger the room, the harder it is to keep the illusion working right.”

The ride slowly moved forward, giving me a feeling of drifting. It was strange, I knew it was all a trick, but my mind was still doing flips trying to grasp what I was seeing. My eyes started to dart back and forth, my breath was shallow and fast, and my jaw was clamping tight.

I was having a fucking panic attack.

I needed to find something to anchor my eyes on, a tear in the illusion, that would calm me down. I didn’t find anything, and only managed to make things worse, as now the stars looked like they were moving around. I held onto the side of the ride with my metal fetlocks, trying not to fall out as the ride tumbled through the void. My eyes could not focus on anything as the stars raised about around me. If I let go, I was gone, to forever be helpless in this void.

“Vibey!” Rototom’s voice whispered in my ear, and I could feel a hoof on my back. “It’s ok Vibey, just breathe, you need to breathe.”

Breathe? I opened my mouth and gasped for air. Clamping my mouth shut again, my body trembled as I forcefully sucked the air in through my teeth.

“That’s good Vibey, now close your eyes, think back to home.” My sisters hoof was rubbing my back gently. It helped calm me down enough to listen to her some more.

I closed my eyes, and thought back to home, to my bed, to… mom.

“Now Viber just sit still, if you keep wiggling you’re going to fall over and hurt yourself” Mama had propped me up on the toilet, next to the bathtub, so she could undress before stepping into the water. She also undid the bun she had her mane in, letting her mess of a mane poof out.

I always found it funny how her mane would do that, and when I could I’d get Rototoms hair to do the same. My favorite thing was to put a bit on Rototom, and see how far her mane would throw it.

“Mama, why can’t we get a shower, Pianos family’s got one.” Baths always took so much time, and mama and papa always had to take off my legs and help me bathing. I didn’t like not being able to move around, and baths were no fun when you can’t play in them. “You know, the really cool shower. You don’t even need to take your legs off to use it.”

Mama sighed. “They’re expensive Viber, and we don’t have the bits for something like that.”

“Why?”

“Because there’s a lot of things that need to be done before one of those showers can be installed.”

“Why?”

Mama rolled her eyes, and turned to the door. “Dear, can you tell out inquisitive daughter why we can’t have a mister helper shower?”

Papa’s voice shouted back to us. “Well we can have one, but we would need to sell her to afford one.”

Turning around, mama had a smile on her face. “There you go.”

I stuck my tongue out at her, they always did this to me, teasing me whenever I had a good idea.

“Where’s the shampoo?” Mama asked nopony in particular. “it's ahh… oh who put it up there?” The shampoo was on top of the drug cabinet. Standing on her back legs, she reached out and picked the shampoo up in her hooves.

*Snap*

Mama suddenly fell to her side, hitting the lightswitch on her way down, turning the bathroom dark.

“MAMA!” I yelled. Without my legs on, I could do nothing but squirm. If I could get on my belly, than I could inch my way to mama, and see if she was okay. I tried to push myself forward, but only found myself falling back against the toilet.

I then began to slip, I could barely see where I was slipping to, but I didn’t need to. “MAMA!” my body fell to the side and I slipped into the bath.

I thrashed the best I could, but only managed a wiggle. Each attempt to get my head above the water failed. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t see, I couldn’t call out for mama. It hurt, I held my breath, but it hurt. It hurt so much I coughed, and bubbles came out of my mouth. More bubbles came out, and I couldn’t hold my breath anymore.

My eyes shot open, and I was still tumbling in the void. I knew it was all fake, but I couldn’t get a hold of myself. Pushing myself up, my back hit my sister, and I heard a ‘eep’ from Harp.

“Vibey calm down.” My sister cooed.

I couldn’t stay here any longer, and the ride was moving too slow. It was tumbling in the void. No it was just moving slowly through this illusion. “I’m getting off.” I huffed. “I’ll look for the others on hoof.”

I jumped off the ride, and fell. “ouf!” I puffed as I hit the ground. The ride was actually suspended above the ground by a good four hooves. From my position I could see the room for what it really was, mirrors and bits of lights. It still had that extending off for eternity feel, but now I could see the floor and ceiling, which were more mirrors, but I could see myself in them. My eyes were red from crying.

“Vibey! Are you okay?” My sister asked as she climbed down from the ride. She helped Harp get down as well, the dainty princess landing into my sister’s hooves before being let down onto the ground. It reminded me of the old breeze tale I read as a foal, except the missing leg forced my sister to sit as she caught the princess. It made me chuckle a little.

“Ya, just give me a minute.” I said, still shaking a little. “I’ll be fine.”

“Lady Echo, what happened to you?” Harp asked softly.

My sister raised a hoof. “It’s related to something that happened a long time ago, let’s leave it at that.” Turning her pipbuck lamp back on, Rototom cleared her throat. “So, let’s look for them on hoof, I’ll lead the wa…” Rototom froze for a moment, and then aimed her rifle at me. ‘Vibey, get ready to move.’

Her voice bounced around in my head, echoing. ‘Where to.’ I thought back.

‘Your left… no my left, you're right.’

I nodded.

‘Now!’

I rolled to my right, and Rototom fired her Zeus, making a zap noise. It was followed by a high pitched cry that hurt my ears.

Turning on my pipbuck lamp, I looked over at what had made the sound. It looked like a pony, but only that, other than its shape, it was anything but a pony. A shell covered everything but its face, of which was pony shaped, but when it opened its mouth to cry again, it revealed no teeth inside, just more of that red glow. The things eyes, and its joints glowed red, much like a Sparkle Cola Rad. Blue blood leaked from its back leg, the shot from the Zeus had only grazed it, but had shattered the shell covering its leg. It was also wearing a red jumpsuit the theme parks logo on it. The jumpsuit had a name on it, ‘Turnip Soup’

“Hold it down.” My sister commanded, as she hopped over to it. I did as she said, and put Turnip into a hold. Whatever it was, it was strong, almost breaking my hold. My sister quickly pulled some bindings from her bag, and let her pipbuck wrap them around Turnip’s legs. When it was good and tied up, Rototom gave it a healing potion. The cracks along its leg healed until the only evidence that it was hurt was the blue blood that had leaked out.

“So… What the fuck is that?” I asked my sister.

She looked at me, the green glow of her visor giving her an unpony-like feeling. “Like i fucking know.” She motioned for me to let it go, and sat down in front of it. “Let’s find out. Hmmm, I doubt Turnip is its real name, but oh well.”

Letting go of the thing, Turnip started to squirm for a bit, eventually giving up, and looking at my sister. “Go, let, let, go.” It spoke in a garbled wet voice.

My sister looked up at me, and back down to Turnip. “Well we know it can talk, that should make it easier. Turnip, or whatever your name is, were looking for four ponies, one like me, and three with wings. Have you seen them?”

Turnip remained silent for a few seconds, blinked once, and opened its mouth. “Let go.”

Rototom sighed. “If you answer a few questions, then I might consider it.”

“Con-sider?” Turnip said and it tilted its head.

“Right, easier, but not easy at all.” Rototom took a deep breath. “Let go if questions answered, yes.”

“No, no, not seen. Heard new, yes. Queen knows, Queen sent other, get new” Turnip answered.

It answered our question, but gave us a new problem. Rototom undid one of the bindings on Turnip’s leg. “Take us to them.” She paused for a moment, scratching her chin. “Take us to your leader.”

Turnip looked around, down to its still bound legs, and back up to Rototom. Nodded. “Yes, can do. Queen deals with new. Will take. See queen.” Freeing the other legs, Rototom hopped back, keeping her gun aimed at Turnip. The shelled pony like thing got up onto all fours, standing around the same height as Harp, but shorter then me and my sister. Headed to the ramp we had come up from. “Come, follow. Queen is down lower.”

Following Turnip, I checked the E.F.S. Nothing. Other than my sister, and Harp, no others appeared on the E.F.S. Whatever Turnip was, it didn’t appear on my E.F.S. ‘Sis, is Turnip on your E.F.S?’ I asked, hoping Minerva just had a glitch.

‘No.’ My sister answered. ‘But now that I think about it, I might know what it is.’ I gave her a look, raising an eyebrow. Rototom continued. ‘Its blood was blue right, just like a lurker. I’ve only heard stories, but if DJ Cerberus is to be believed, there were some pony shaped lurkers living in the Sparkle-cola plant years ago.’

‘Strange’ I responded. ‘Let’s go with that, and hope this queen is not just some hungry brood mother.’

We reached the room we were in before, but without the lights on Captain Andromeda felt a lot creepier. In the faint light she looked more like a shadow that stood upright, unnatural and eerier. Turnip opened a hidden door that was disguised as prop door. Weirdly clever.

“So, Mister, or Miss Turnip was it?” Harp asked the lurker. “What do you do here? You do look like a engineer.”

Turnip made a few clicking sounds. “I Fix, I clean, I gather.”

Harp suddenly trotted a little faster, getting closer to the lurker. “So it’s your kind that’s been maintaining the park. This is so fascinating! Tell me, why did you pick the park, was it your queen's orders?” The princess seemed a bit too excited, which even seemed to surprise Turnip

“Queen Yes, queen decided to move, felt that stripy ponies would come, hurt the eggs. Here farther away, here queen is happy.” A few more clicks came from Turnip. “Queen says this is queendom, says we must make it strong.”

“Oh I’d love to meet this queen, she sounds fascinating.” Harps tail swished a little, reminding me a bit of a dog. “You know I’m a princess myself, my mother’s the queen of my people.”

The lurker stopped in its tracks. “Princess!” Turnip scooted a step away from Harp. “Yes, talk to queen.” Turnip started trotting faster than before. Harp looked back at us with a confused look on her face.

We soon found ourselves going down a stairwell. Unlike the rest of the old-world stairs, this looked in to be in excellent condition, like it had only been built in the last few years. I also noted that walls were decorated with seashells, nothing fancy, just every now and then it had a bunch of them glued to the wall.

At the bottom, Turnip opened a blast door. If this place was connected to the metro, it would not be a surprise to see such heavy duty doors down here. Two things struck me when the door opened, first was that the humidity was like a wall, and second, the sounds of life were unmissable. It sounded a bit like a busy substation, though with more clicking than pony chatter.

Stepping inside I saw the familiar sight of a wooden and glass door. ‘Solaris Inc. PR Office.’ The door cracked open, and a glowing red eye looked at us. Turnip stepped up to the door, clicking a few times. “Here to see queen. Let in. Kindly.” The door opened up, and the lurker waved us in.

Passing the door was like entering into another world. Lights illuminating the painted walls, which were in different bright colors, and decorated with shells. There was little order to the decoration, and color, everything looking more like somepony was using a color until the paint ran out, and moved onto the next.

The Lurker that let us in was a little taller than Turnip. It's purple carapace was splashed with green paint, and it had an old torn up yellow sun dress on. It clicked a few times, and closed the door behind us. She seemed a little scared with how she was avoiding eye contact with us.

Further in, the PR office had been turned into a recycling center. Lurkers walked about sorting through, and separating junk. Each thing was being broken down to its base parts, and placed into old metal crates. To a scrapper this would be a grand treasure hoard.

Every now and then one of the workers would look up at us, and immediately back down, continuing their work. Most of them had the same red jumpsuits as Turnip, all in different states of decay. Some of them had paint splashed on them, like with the one at the door, others were decorated in seashells.

Some doors were shut, and had a guard in front of it. Nothing about them was too different from the other lurkers, except it had what looked like a space suit on, and some nasty looking hoof claws. There was another guard armed with a riot shotgun, the gun looking old, but still in relatively good condition.

We walked to the end of the hall, to a set of closed doors. Above the doors were the words ‘Recording Studio’. Blocking our path were two very intimidating lurker guards. They both had the space suits on, but they were reinforced with scrap metal and pony bones. One of them had a flamer attached to its side, and the other had a gatling gun.

Harp had moved back between me and my sister.

Turnip stopped at the two guards. “See queen, pony princess asks, let in, kindly.”

The guards looked at each other, and back down at Turnip, clicking at him. “No go. Queen busy. Playing with food. Not now, Later.”

Turnip turned around and walked up to us. “No see, kindly wait.”

Looking at my E.F.S. I could see four blue bars pass the two guards. Looking at Rototom, she gave me a knowing nod, and turned her attention to Turnip.

My sister pointed at the door. “No, we must go in. Our friends are there, and we must see them.”

The lurker looked back at the door, and back at us. “No, we wait. Queen play with food first.”

I didn’t like the sound of that, and from the looks of it neither did Rototom. Clearing her voice, Rototom took a deep breath. “MY FRIENDS ARE NOT FOOD! LET US IN NOW!” I held my ears shut, with them still being a little sensitive from the fight before.

Turnip cowered back, and all the guards got ready for a fight. If we started a firefight here, we were not going to win it. I was still shaking from my panic attack, Rototom was missing a leg, and Harp was the farthest thing from a fighter. Add that the two door guards had just the right weapons to destroy the hallway before we could even find cover.

The guard with the flamer stepped forward. “Queen does what queen wants. You wait. Queen might not be hungry when sees you. Queen might be. You wait, you find out.”

It was a standoff, Rototom had her guns aimed at the guards blocking the Recording Studio, and I had mine aimed on the guards we had passed. Turnip laid flat on the ground, his hooves over his head. Every little twitch was met by another. Sweat fell from my brow, and my slight shaking threaten to have me accidentally shoot first. I was scared that I was about to kill us all.

“ENOUGH!” Harps voice resonated with authority, but lacked the aggression that Rototom had. “We are here to have a civilized discussion, not to devolve into senseless violence.” She stepped up to Turnip, and pointed at him. “You get up, as our guide show some self-respect. You are in the presence of royalty.” She stomped her hoof, and Turnip sat up straight. Turning her attention to the two guards, she pointed at them with her hoof. “You two, open these doors, and let us through.”

“No.” said the gatling gun guard.

“You no command us.” Spoke the Flamer guard.

Harp tilted her head. “I may not be of your royalty, but you will stand aside, and we will see your queen. Do you want to know why that is?”

“Do not care.” The flamer guard retorted.

“Not at all.” The gatling gun guard added.

Harp chuckled. “As a princess of the Orphic Kingdom, I have more authority than you. When I do see your queen, I’ll let her know of this insult, and she will see that it never happens again.” Harp lifted up a hoof, and looked at it with a smug smile on her face. “I’ve heard that severed heads on a silver platter are popular this year. A shame that two dedicated guards like yourselves would have to be made an example of for others. Such a shame.”

Everything went quiet, and nobody moved. Harp herself locked frozen in her pose, her tail tucked between her legs, but still holding firm.

“Fine. Go.” Spoke the flamer guard, stepping out of the way. The gatling gun guard also stepped out of the way, but didn’t say anything.

Turnip quickly trotted to the doors, and opened it for us. Stepping over to it, Harp nearly fell over when I patted her on the back. She looked at me, her eyes watering, and ready to cry. Rototom hopped in behind us, grumbling about stupid thick headed lurkers.

The inside of the Recording Studio was far different than the rest of the office. The lights were much dimmer, and bottles of sparkle-cola Rad decorated the walls. In the center was a long table, sitting at the table closer to us, was or friends. Light and Wild were on one side, and Merit and Sweet on the other. At the far end was a very tall Lurker, with a glowing red fin coming from her head and down one side like a pony mane. She had a golden crown on her head, decorated with shells, and on her right leg was a pipbuck. To either side of her were a two lurkers that looked like smaller versions of her. One had a headdress made of shells that flowed down to her shoulders, and the other had a tiara made of glass.

The tall lurker spoke “So there were more of your kind here. My hunters will need to be reprimanded for this oversight.” There was no denying it, she had to be this Queen. “Now sit, and I do hope you have some more stories for me to hear. Good for building up an appetite.”

Looking around some more, there were more guards inside, a good six to each side. Doing what the queen asked, I took my seat next to Merit, and my sister took the seat next to me. Harp Sat next to Light, switching places with Wild. Turnip, turned around and trotted to the door.

“You sit as well worker.” The Queen’s voice boomed unnervingly. Turnip, quickly turned back around, running over to taking a seat near Wild. One of the smaller lurkers with the head dress, a lurker princess maybe, had leaned in as she looked at Turnip, only to sit back into her seat when the queen’s head moved to scan us all. “Now that you're done making a racket, continue with the story.” Her eyes were looking right at Merit.

We looked at each other, but Merit suddenly broke eye contact, and avoided my gaze. I looked over at the two other pegasi, Light was distracted by Harp, but Wild was looking down at the table, looking a bit upset.

Merit spoke up, sounding less then sure with himself “The bombing run... it was a success.”

Quest Progression -

- My Kingdom for a Pony – 75%

- Who Dares, Win – 75%

Quest Completed.

- Are you having fun yet?

Quest perk gained.

-Pinkie sense- Your frightful trip through Tomorrow Park has left you more aware of the world around you, for better or worse. +1 to perception, and sometimes your tail will twitch when something falls.